In contact with Craig Scrivner and got access to the old FTP site where I used to store stuff for classes.

Must go for my INR reading and on to Funercise class at the AAC, to Bi-Mart, and other Tuesday stops. Made it to KVC but didn’t hear the results of anything. Strange. (Heard the next morning, everything A-OK, INR and Potassium).

Went by Super 1 for my Entresto, and need to pick up tomorrow, because Dawn offered to halve half of them.

Supper: Chicken breast pieces, some boiled shrimp and enough to take to lunch tomorrow at the food bank, fried yams and yellow squash with onions, half ear of corn, and then later, strawberries for dessert.

While in town, I went to pick up Gloria, dropped off her Costco purchases, and we started at the Food Bank, for music, primarily. I signed in last as #55, and some folks missed signing in. Wow, big crowd today! I had help carrying in my “stuff,” and got a close parking space. I was presented a card and a walnut muffin with a candle and everyone in the building singing, Happy Birthday! Gloria and Dean also gave me a card.

John went to town to return rock specimens that John Lasher collected during a Tieton Andesite study. He went on to get his car filled with gasoline for his Friday trip to Mt. Rainier. We both made trips to the grocery store.

On my way to downtown Ellensburg, I stopped by Amy and Haley’s to pick up some awesome 100% cotton bandanas Amy bought for us in a craft store in Issaquah. They are perfect for what we need. John wanted one to match his bright orange work shirt and WTA hard hat – no good reason, just a fashion statement. Chuckle!

Met Jan Naragon at 11:45, for lunch at EBRG’s Thai restaurant. Marissa is the person who was so helpful prior to our arrival. I’m taking Jan and her some yellow Shiro plums.

My choice, Princess Cashew, a Chicken breast quick sautéed with cashews, baby corn, onion, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, celery, bell pepper and special chili sauce (I chose a #1=Low on the sauce spiciness). Served with rice on the side. Marissa is an excellent waitress. I called in advance to discuss dietary restrictions, and she was more than helpful.

Dinner: Leftovers from lunch, plus shrimp (boiled), small tomatoes (John grew), and yellow plums. One big old plum (cling-less seed). I still have enough for another meal!

Latest on the fire NW of us, one of two sending smoke to our valley. It continues to grow, with some guidance by water and retardant drops. The fire agencies use the term “values”, as in, so far there has been only minimal loss of values within the perimeter. Still, it is close and of great concern for rural and small town residents. For a another story, follow this local link from our Ellensburg Daily Record News, 8-31-17 report (photo from the Swauk-Teanaway Grange included).Link

John took off for his WTA trip to Mt. Rainier at 5:15 a.m., taking along some cooled plums in the cooler for sharing with the crew at the end of the day. They really enjoyed some last week. Now this will be a different crew leader (Hannah), and perhaps some of the same crew, with others added.

What a great birthday I’m having!
First phone call after 9:00 a.m. from my 91 yr. old friend, Gloria; and she sang the entire Happy Birthday song, even adding on the “and many more.” Then about 10:00, I left for town, for the food bank (see below). I got home about 1:15, and was home not too long, before I got a nice birthday wish from New Jersey, from my friend, Elise. Then ~4:00 p.m., I had a nice call from Peggy, my sister-in-law in Parma, OH. She was going to a neighbor’s party, and was going to have a glass of wine as a toast to me.

As I was talking with her, Annie my dog barked. She seldom barks except to announce someone’s arrival in our driveway. I didn’t know until later, it was a half dozen+ Merriam turkeys. I watched them and got John’s camera for a couple of pix. We have posted better pictures and videos in the past, but I still shot a few to show John. Toms did not gave me a pretty show, one just a small shot of the start of a fan. First, they left the front yard walking, and then came back and cackled some more, got my attention, so I looked out the window in time to see 4 take flight to leave. Earlier, a few had departed walking up the driveway, and I thought they were gone. This must have been the rest of the 12 recently visiting our place. John has seen more of them than I because of his greater outside time. Sometimes the horses will alert him to the turkeys whereabouts. Horses find turkeys very interesting. Go figure.

John sent Anna Roth (WTA Hiking Content Manager) a correction for the WTA Trips site, and in subsequent e-mails a warning about our local fires. She is headed to our south – Naches music weekend.
Then she wrote: “Of course, the band we want to see is playing Friday (9/8), so we definitely want to be there in time for that. This is the band we are going to go see at Naches Chinook Fest. They’re very talented musicians and songwriters.”

I surely enjoyed the YouTube link she sent me. but I will have to be there in spirit with them. They are going for the weekend, (the write-up is at chinookfest.com ).

She also sent this link to Mark O’Connor’s , Appalachia Waltz. Mark O’Connor’s beautiful ‘Appalachia Waltz’ features, Yo-Yo Ma on cello and Edgar Meyer on bass. This is absolutely incredible, almost 7 minutes of the nicest music you will ever hear, and I thoroughly enjoyed it on my birthday! I’m sharing with the rest of my friends and relatives, via this blog. Nice b.d. present.

My other celebration today was at the Food Bank. I got there early to carry in a 5-gallon bucket with some water and a lone sunflower, several dahlias of 2 different colors (one a variegated red/orange and 2 different gladioli. My friend, Lori, there cut and arranged them, and then we had our picture taken.Lori Skov is in charge of all the food at the F.I.S.H. Food Bank; I went in on my birthday to help make sandwiches to put into bags for Saturday’s late afternoon Food Bank use. This picture we took before the noon lunch bunch came in, and before the sandwich making occurred. John says except for the wind trying to blow them over, it was a good year for blooms.The process of making peanut butter/jelly & egg salad sandwiches, and packing into paper bags with fruit, chips, & cupcakes. 35 bags in center. I wrapped sandwiches in plastic. Two others (Aloha & Ginger) made the sandwiches.

5:10 call from John at White Pass. He had to drive with lots of traffic; I was happy to hear from him that he took lots of water on the trail this time, and had no problem staying hydrated. He had more packed for the trip home. He’s going by Yakima for gasoline at Costco. I just checked on line. The price is $2.73/gal. Good move on his part, as our prices in Ellensburg are $2.85, possibly it increased here because of the long Rodeo weekend activities through Labor Day. We are staying away from town.

Here is another “trail” (Pacific Crest Trail) story in our Friday (9-1) paper, in which our friend, Jim Huckabay (formerly a Geography Prof with me at CWU), writes a Friday column about the Outdoors. Check this link:

Hams, Wildfire, 100-mi RunsLink
Supper: leftovers from yesterday, added carrots & boiled shrimp, some small tomatoes, 5 Shiro plums, and strawberries for dessert.
6:51 p.m. Phone call from John coming through the Selah Gap, will be home in 45 minutes, probably. While on the WTA trail work, he saw a big plume of smoke from the Norse Peak fire but did not snap a photo. Says there is better stuff on the web.

I received quite a number of wishes (some very cute) on Facebook. Funniest is from Julie Lind Orvald, who just celebrated her own birthday 8/28.

Indian Blanket Flower photo from David Covert was the prettiest birthday wish I received on Facebook. David said later in an email, his identification for it: “Indian Blanket Flower, Gaillardia; butterflies love this flower.”

Gaillardia
This is an excerpt from that article (I removed most of the hyperlinks in the description on line): Gaillardia /ɡeɪˈlɑːrdiə/ (common name blanket flower) is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, native to North and South America. It was named after an M. Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. The common name may refer to the resemblance of the inflorescence to the brightly patterned blankets made by Native Americans. I had to look up some of the words used in the description.

John took this sunset on his way back from Mt. Rainier.With smoke in our valley from two major wildfires, our sunrises and sunsets have been dark orange (difficult to capture on our cameras without the proper filters, tripod, and remote release). We tried one of the moon at 1:45 a.m., 9-3-17, and did not succeed. It was a small bright orange circle on a black background.This is a collage of my attempt from our patio, 9-1-17, using John’s Nikon camera. Pix shot a minute apart.

We went to the Beard’s Ranch down the road 2.3 miles to attend the beginning of their 70th wedding anniversary celebration. We took them a vase with two beautiful dahlias, a box of yellow Shiro plums, and a nice anniversary card. Frank took us on a tour of the memorabilia in their house. It is rodeo but mostly Native American art based. He grew up on the Yakama Reservation, so he knows a lot of the language and has known many of the people.

I took some videos of his explanation to share. It was a historical and cultural experience in a short time. I’m glad we got their early and had his time to cover things, while the Ellensburg Rodeo parade was going on in town. I’m sure a bunch of folks will inundate the home later today.

The next photo appeared in our local newspaper yesterday:My collage of John & Frank & Charlot Beard & Nancy in front of wood carvings of Indians, John’s and my favorite of all the displays.Collage of the wall with the wood carvings in Beards’ home, and a close-up of the one on the right.

I added some of my own videos, of John’s and my walk around with Frank, describing his memories. This was a wonderful step back to the past cultural history of our region. Frank grew up on the Yakama Reservation and learned many of their customs, language, and life, participating in many facets, but mostly centered on horses.

Speaking of Ida Nason and her son, Allen Aronica, this appeared yesterday on Facebook, on the Community Connect Kittitas County group site; I will share with you: This photo was taken by the Nancy listed below, as she was walking with a cousin along the road on the east side of the fairgrounds. The path leads up Craig’s Hill, and the Yakamas ride horses down the hill to start formally the Ellensburg Rodeo & Fair events for the Labor Day Weekend.

My comment on line to the photographer: Allen Aronica is my neighbor, Ida Nason’s son, and is involved every year at the Fair. He is not a member of this FB group (Community Connect, Kittitas County), but I will capture the information and encourage him to see this link. Thank you, Nancy Kibler Bevilacqua-Madrigal, for sharing such an awesome photo.

Here’s a link to the official start of the Ellensburg Rodeo: (link spells the Yakama incorrectly), but it is correct inside:Link

Back to our tour of the Beards’ home, by Frank.

One print is visible in their living room, behind the flowers we took them for their 70th, and others are on the walls. I put into a collage below and will tell you the story of the Indian artist below. Photo quality decreases from left to right in my collage. Left is from camera and right two are snagged from my videos.Left, our dahlias block the first, with 2 more to the left; middle is on the wall of their stairs to the loft; right is their front door with more George Flett work. I thought Frank was saying “Flint”, until I looked up the artist on the Internet.

Frank showed us and talked about several of the many prints done by George Flett (died in 2013, at 66), which he and Charlot have collected over the years. Flett was an Indian artist who was part of the Spokane tribe. He was diabetic. Here he is in 2007 tracing the outline of a Prairie Chicken Dancer on a strip of ledger paper fixed on canvas at his studio in Wellpinit, WA. (I found this in his death notice in an article reported online in the Spokesman-Review).More videos to share:

Brunch: mixed nuts, plums, banana Supper: John and I went to the Cottage Cafe for a selection of 3 meals, eating some, and bringing home parts to have for dinner tomorrow night, when he gets back from Mt. Rainier. We had parts of a Cobb Salad, Black and Blue Steak Salad, and Steak & Eggs.

I took a photo of the Jolly Mountain Fire cloud of smoke behind the Cottage Cafe. I won’t publish it because there are better photos on line. I wish I had taken a photo coming up Hwy 10 of the two fires affecting our valley. Norse Peak (the fire John has had to detour around for 15 minutes to get to Sunrise at Rainier for his WTA trail work) was shooting in smoke from the Southwest and Jolly Mountain was sending its plume of smoke toward Wenatchee and Cashmere. Coming across Bristol Flats (7 miles east of Cle Elum) offered an incredible view. In addition, there was no smoke above us except higher up. The air circulation was amazing. By the time we left, the fire had settled down (as they do in the evening). Strange phenomena.

Jen Lipton lives in Roslyn; she is on the CWU Geography faculty. I have known her since she was interviewed. She is our Remote Sensing & GIS expert. We’ve offered help if she needs anything. So far they are in the “Have your things in a vehicle and be ready to go” status.

I got up to see John off at 5:15 a.m. for Mt. Rainier WTA work crew. 57°F. When dawn came it was very smoky and overcast with a red morning sun.
I found this link when logging on, and following a link on a photo. Talk about unusual! Link

Lunch: nuts and plums

Supper: leftovers from our dinner last night.

John called about 4:45 p.m., from White Pass and will call me in another hour.

Here is the latest on the Jolly Mountain Fire from KOMONEWS in Seattle. Check out the video and photo gallery. Link

Here is a collage I made from two shots, yesterday and today I got from Jen Lipton.Left, High Country Log Show & imagery of the fire at 375m/cell using VIIRS data (Thermal Infrared Heat signature). Back with the former wildfires in our area, I utilized MODIS data to keep people informed about the extent, but its resolution is 1km/cell.

Breakfast: Sausage, piece of Omelet with little tomatoes and lots of mushrooms, and with strawberries.

We’ve been in touch with friends in Roslyn who are on notice to evacuate. EVACUATION LEVEL 2 – GET READY – ISSUED FOR RONALD AND ROSLYN (9-1-17).

Last view of the fire from nighttime:Ronald and Roslyn are the soft yellow lights, Interstate-90 traffic headlights at bottom. Photo by Bill Crawford.

Here is a description from Jen Lipton: “Absolutely amazing night photo of the Fire. Lake Cle Elum is to the far left of image, Interstate 90 is the road along the bottom, the night lights of Roslyn are in the center, Cle Elum is to the right center, and Mount Stuart rises up above the smoke cloud.”